From ‘The Military Situation’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915:
How does the war look as a whole? The best way to answer this question is to consider it from the point of view of some perfectly impartial person living in Germany, but with intellect and judgment unaffected by any patriotic emotions. What would such a person tell us of the war? Germany has been called a besieged country. With that epigram he would probably agree, except that he would add the word “partially.” He would say she was closely besieged on her water front and on the western and eastern fronts, even though in the east the besieged were capable of very powerful sorties. The southern front he would describe as still open, though admitting that the south-east section of that southern front was in danger of being closed as the result of the operations in the Dardanelles. Next he would note that the Germans are daily beating themselves with great fury and great loss of men and material against the lines of circumvallation on the land and sea fronts west and north and east. Here, he would say, they show great prowess and obtain plenty of local successes, but that is not enough. In spite of their possessing and pressing the initiative, they are really on the defensive, though of course it is the offensive form of defence. It is not the true offensive, because success does not enable the victors to go forward. However successful they are locally, the German General Staff dare not push on, dare not seize the rewards of victory. The Germans have no true objective, or rather, to be scientific, they have no physical objective. Metaphysically their object, like the object of all combatants, is to beat the enemy’s armies, but they cannot now say : “We are going to take Calais, or Paris, or even Belfort.” Still less are they able to say with sincerity ” We are going to invade Russia, hold all Poland, and push so far into the Baltic Provinces that the Tsar will tremble for the safety of Petrograd.” They know at heart that these things are not for them.
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